Wednesday, July 2, 2014

My home in the summer looks like this...

Evidently they couldn't decide between doing a puzzle or going swimming.

On the way out of a therapy appointment last week, the therapist asked me what we were doing this summer. One of the children immediately yelled out, We watch a lot of TV!
Ummmm...
Well...
I hung my head in shame and explained that we do do a daily movie. But then I needed to add that we do other stuff too like make popsicles, go swimming, cook together and they help out around the house too. I found myself searching for anything "fun" or significant that we had done or plan to do. And I came up totally blank. No vacations. No summer camp. No summer school. Yep, popsicles seems to be the biggest most significant thing we have planned this summer.

Good! said the therapist. Sometimes I see kids, and they're just so wound up with all the plans and vacations. It's so good that you're having down time where they can just be kids and learn how to play together. And your kids seem so relaxed right now. "Even keel" was the words she used.
I exhaled.
Ya, that's the plan. Lot's of down time to play and be together. To do lots of puzzles in bathing suits with goggles on.

And besides, we really really like popsicles!

What's your plan this summer?

(ps- yes you caught that right! I said do do. Upon rereading it, I was gonna change it, but then I thought about how funny my kids would think that would be that I actually put do do in print, and I don't want this blog to pass of for anything other than mildly amusing. So it's staying. Dodo!)

8 comments:

We are keeping things low-key too. Caleb is playing tennis every day, but that's nothing new to the summer schedule (it's just more organized). We have two weekends planned out of town with family/friends and tennis tournaments as usual. Nothing big and outrageous scheduled- no sleep away camps or weekly sports camps...not even summer library programs (though I'm bummed I haven't been able to fit them in). Just lots of tennis and swimming and simply hanging out and being a kid!

Wait! You're saying that we're not bad parents if we don't have something educational / cultural planned every moment of the day (when she's not eating a well-balanced meal or getting the recommended amount of sleep, that is)???? When did this happen???? I feel vaguely guilty if we just let our daughter play with her toys and amuse herself instead of sitting her in front of a language video or reading to her or playing some sort of educational game with her, and I've already started thinking about whether we should put her in ONLY dance and gymnastics when she's old enough, or whether soccer or some other sport must also be included! Along with a reading list and Mandarin lessons, of course.

docjim505, I KNOW it's good to do a good balance of both. Really I do. Actually I think it's even better to do mostly nothing with some of the good stuff thrown in. But I'm still a people pleaser at my core afraid of judgement and I do worry that I judge myself for not doing enough... even though I KNOW I shouldn't. Oh don't even get me started on kids sports. Thx for the confirmation. ~nancy

I hope you don't take me too seriously. I am acquainted with people who do as I (rather tongue-in-cheek) suggest and have their poor kids doing something "constructive" practically every waking moment. It seems to me hard - unduly hard - on all concerned.

As you say, there needs to be balance. How to achieve it, though... That's why I'm so glad you've written this post as well as the one from a few months ago about straight A's. Left to my own devices, I fear that I would be one of those parents who rush their kids from gynmastics to Mandarin to soccer and home to a reading list... and make the kids' lives a misery to them. Believe me, it's so helpful to be reminded that kids NEED to be kids, too.

Oh I think we are absolutely on the same page! It bothers me that my knee jerk reaction the to the therapist's question was to come up with all the things we were doing! I know the right answer in my heart. Yet I still worry about having the right balance. Not too much. Not enough. Parenting is a tough nut. I'm very often glad that we ended up with 7 kiddos rather than just 1 or 2. Those poor 1 or 2 would be driven too hard knowing me. With 7 it's not really even possible. And that's one of the things I like best.

Nothing in particular, but I will be spending the 4th of July weekend with some childhood friends. We have been friends for over 40plus years and we are gonna kick off of 50th birthday yeat this weekend in New Orleans. One is flying from California, One from Atlanta and I'm arriving from Texas. We will all windup TOGETHER in the BIG EASY. Just some good old GIRL TIME! I'm looking forward to it no doubt. Later this summer, on of the above "said friends"is having a 50th birthday party in late August. I had already primed her to believe "that prior plans was gonna clash with that weekend". I plan to SURPRISE her that weekend. She is GONNA FAINT!! No doubt!! Somewhere in between, I will continue to travel to Dallas and visit THE GRANDS and probably squeeze in a quick mini vacay before school kicks off in August.

4 yrs - the average time a child spends in American foster care before being adopted

1.5 million children live in public care in Central and Eastern Europe

12.4 million orphans live in Latin America and the Carribean

43.4 million orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa

87.6 million orphans live in Asia

16 million children were orphaned in 2003

Every 14 seconds a child is orphaned as a result of AIDS

400,000+ children in the American Foster Care in 2011

20,000+ young people "age out" of the U.S. foster care system each year. Of these only a little over half will earn a high school diploma.

147 million orphans in the world

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT...

"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness. Kindness in your face. Kindness in your eyes. Kindness in your smile." ~Mother Teresa

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